Newsletter | April 2016

April 26, 2016

in Newsletters,

Chairman's View |

Syed Mir, Chairman

Members of the Green Button Alliance have been at the forefront of the Green Button initiative since its inception and continue to drive advancements. In our March newsletter , we noted the U.S. federal government's continued support of personal data-access initiatives, including the Green Button Initiative. In this issue, we take a look at Green Button activities across the border in Canada.

This month we feature the Advanced Energy Centre in our "Member Spotlight." The AEC has been working with the Ontario Ministry of Energy to drive the successful adoption and implementation of the Green Button standard across the province. Today, over 10 Ontario-based electric utilities are enabling over 60% of residential and small-business customers to have access to Green Button Download My Data via their utilities' web portals. The AEC has also helped to support the creation of over 40 customer-facing Green Button applications.

In the U.S., utility momentum toward Green Button Connect My Data continues to grow: Last month, New York utility, Consolidated Edison, pledged to implement Green Button Connect My Data as part of its AMI rollout. Customers of Illinois utilities, Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois, are also gaining the benefits of the Green Button standard. This means millions of additional consumers will be empowered with easy access their energy data.

Companies are actively growing the Green Button ecosystem in North America and Europe; and further international expansion is on the horizon. We look forward to working with your organization during this exciting time.

Lastly, check out the Green Button Alliance website with a new look and features for enhanced member collaboration.

─Syed Mir

Member Spotlight |

The Advanced Energy Centre (AEC) is a public-private partnership with the mission of fostering the adoption of innovative energy technologies in Canada, and leveraging those successes and experiences into international markets. The Centre is a part of MaRS Discovery District, a Canadian registered charity based in Toronto that operates as one of the world's largest urban innovation hubs. The AEC identifies and removes systemic barriers to the adoption of energy innovation, working with over 170 Canadian ventures in the cleantech and energy sectors, actively developing partnerships that will help bring their technologies to global markets.

AEC and Green Button

The AEC has been a long standing supporter of the Green Button initiative and has been engaged in driving its adoption and roll-out since its very inception. The AEC Green Button team has been leading the Ontario Energy Data Access Project Working Group with the Ontario Ministry of Energy, to enable improved access to energy data in Ontario. The AEC has led this working group through the review and adoption of the standard, which includes Green Button Download My Data implementation across over 10 electric utilities and over 60% of Ontario, in addition to two Connect My Data pilots with a few hundred participants between them.

Presently, the AEC is engaged in developing market capacity with utilities, solution providers and consumers to drive Ontario's adoption of the Green Button Connect My Data standard across electricity, natural gas and potentially even water metered data. For those Ontario companies who have already deployed the standard and developed Green Button enabled solutions, the AEC is actively opening access to larger international markets by promoting the standard in countries such as Chile, Columbia, India and in the European Union.

Looking Forward

The AEC is working with key energy sector stakeholders and supporting the Ontario Government to establish and quantify key use cases that would be unlocked through Ontario's adoption of Green Button for electricity, natural gas and water data. These quantified Green Button use cases will result in the first comprehensive and quantitative business case for adopting Green Button. This business case will review the costs and benefits of rolling out Green Button across a large jurisdiction, with hundreds of utilities from electricity, natural gas and water. Findings from this business case will be used to inform Ontario's policy decisions to mandate the roll-out of Green Button across electricity, natural gas and water data in Ontario.

Member News |

Cielo WiGle Inc. , based in Redmond, Washington, launched its initial range of plug and play smart home products including smart air conditioner controllers for ductless ACs and smart outlets for home appliances that can be controlled and managed through the Cielo iOS, Android and web-based applications, at the Internet of Things Expo (IOTX) on March 29-31 in Dubai, UAE. Cielo's innovative mobile applications enable homeowners to access and control their homes through state of the art smart devices developed by Cielo. The company aims to launch its smart light adapter and $Meter application later this year. $Meter intends to augment utility-provided Green Button energy usage and billing data with real-time Cielo smart device consumption information and make it available in the Cielo Cloud. Homeowners will be able to easily access and control each watt of energy consumed by their smart home from anywhere in the world. Follow Cielo on Twitter: @CieloWiGle.

WattzOn provides web and mobile based solutions that enable people and communities across the U.S. to capture utility data and perform analytics allowing them to save energy and money. WattzOn's cloud-based platform provides automated access to electricity and gas utility data nationwide, serving solar companies, the connected home market, and community programs. Community program participants save $15 to $20 per month (vs. control groups) and based on this consistent track record, WattzOn now offers a guaranteed savings program. In the solar market, WattzOn's tools accelerate residential sales and increase sales closure rates. In the connected home market, WattzOn's tools enable the thermostat to become the entry point for energy savings throughout the house and for WattzOn's partners to offer personalized, engaging, and useful experiences for their customers.

Two Green Button Alliance members, Energyworx and Silver Spring Networks, were recently identified among a select group of vendors as key innovators in the Internet of Things (IoT) Utility market by a leading market research firm MarketsandMarkets (M&M). The report notes the global IoT Utility market has been estimated at USD 4.63 Billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at a yearly rate of 20% to reach USD 11.73 Billion by 2020. See Energyworx blog about the report here. Don't miss Silver Spring Networks at Internet of Things World, May 10-12, in Santa Clara, California and see Energyworx at Grid Edge World Forum, June 21-23 in San Jose, California.

In the headlines...

As noted in this Greentech Media article , in March, the New York Public Service Commission approved Consolidated Edison's (Con Ed) Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) plan on the condition that the utility provide Home Area Network (HAN) functionality and implement the Green Button Connect My Data standard. Con Ed currently provides support for Green Button Download My Data to its customers.

Also in March, and as the Illinois Citizens Utility Board (CUB) stated , the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved a proposal that will help customers of Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and Ameren Illinois─which are currently installing advanced digital meters across Illinois─gain the ability to give utilities their consent to quickly, seamlessly, and securely share their energy usage data with third parties, setting the stage for the Illinois utilities to implement Green Button Connect My Data. Both ComEd and Ameren currently provide Download My Data to customers.

Read about Green Button Alliance member PG&E's recent proposal for an innovative residential pay-for-performance pilot that would measure energy savings using an open-source platform to access smart meter data via PG&E's Share My Data platform, a Green Button Connect My Data implementation, allowing for near-real-time transmittal of energy usage data.

Events & Activities |


EnergyBee team at Boston Cleanweb Hackathon

The Green Button Alliance and member UtilityAPI were proud supporters of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's (MassCEC) 5th Annual Boston Cleanweb Hackathon held the weekend of April 1-3, 2016. UtilityAPI was a data sponsor for the event and was on-site to answer questions. The GBA and UtilityAPI congratulate the hackathon's 80 participants for creating 11 energy efficiency applications in just 30 hours. EnergyBee, the hackathon's first place winner, created an app that enables consumers to set and track energy use goals and spending, as well as compete against friends to save energy. EnergyBee used data provided by UtilityAPI.

What's next?

The Green Button Alliance's chairman, Syed Mir, CIO and VP Corporate Services of London Hydro will present "Green Button: Lessons Learned" today during the CSWeek event being held this week from April 25-29, 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. Mir's talk will focus on linking utility customer engagement to the Green Button standard, and integrating Green Button with the utility's other internal strategic programs to address customer needs and create third party business opportunities.

Green Button Alliance member the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) is holding the CABA Intelligent Buildings & Digital Home Forum this week from April 26-28, 2016, in San Diego, California. The CABA Forum brings together the leading organizations involved in the integration of intelligent building systems and connected home technology. Barry Haaser, executive director of the Green Button Alliance will speak on the "Connected Home Track: Standards & Protocols - Which Group Will Win the Interoperability Wars?" today. Register for the event here .

On May 10th, Green Button Alliance member the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) will release its highly-anticipated Empowered Consumer report. Join the SGCC's "Engaging Today's Empowered Consumer" webinar on May 25th which will cover their findings.

The Green Button Community Call #5

The next Green Button Community call will be hosted by MaRS Discovery District (MaRSDD) and will be held May 19th, 2016, at 3:00 pm EDT (19:00 UTC). Register here to be notified of the call details/agenda.

Kind regards,

Barry Haaser, Executive Director

Jeremy J. Roberts, General Manager

Donald F. Coffin, Technical Manager

Valdis Hellevik, PR Manager